mumblety-peg

Definitions

noun A game in which players toss a jackknife in various prescribed ways, with the object being to make the blade stick firmly into the ground.

noun a game in which players throw or flip a jackknife in various ways so that the knife sticks in the ground

[From the phrase mumble the peg, from the fact that originally the loser had to pull up with the teeth a peg driven into the ground.]

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A boy on an idle Saturday, playing a solitary game of mumblety-peg in the shade of a cottonwood.

Excerpt: Crossers by Philip Caputo 2009
Two boys (who might be Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn) play mumblety-peg with pocketknives.

The Art of Politics David McCullough 2007
After lunch I was sitting on top of Bald Hill with Hilliard Wood, Mehetable Hughes, and Ruth Ann Catlin, playing mumblety-peg with my jackknife.

Stillwater William F. Weld 2002
We dallied too long at a best-of-seven series of mumblety-peg by the Great Rock.

Stillwater William F. Weld 2002
After lunch I was sitting on top of Bald Hill with Hilliard Wood, Mehetable Hughes, and Ruth Ann Catlin, playing mumblety-peg with my jackknife.

Stillwater William F. Weld 2002
After lunch I was sitting on top of Bald Hill with Hilliard Wood, Mehetable Hughes, and Ruth Ann Catlin, playing mumblety-peg with my jackknife.

Stillwater William F. Weld 2002
We dallied too long at a best-of-seven series of mumblety-peg by the Great Rock.

Stillwater William F. Weld 2002
We dallied too long at a best-of-seven series of mumblety-peg by the Great Rock.

Stillwater William F. Weld 2002
Gus had taught two of the boys to play mumblety-peg. Matilda and Long Bill had taught them simple card games.

The Lonesome Dove Series Larry McMurtry 1995
He devoted his leisure to complicated games of mumblety-peg with the Rainey boys.

The Lonesome Dove Series Larry McMurtry 1995